Disc Dish had a grand time speaking with the Cloris Leachman about her role in the independent film American Cowslip: A Redneck Comedy
Written, directed and produced 
by Mark David, American Cowslip is a colorful if undeniably dark comedy about a drug addict (co-writer Ronnie Gene Blevins) and his dealings with the colorful denizens of his small California desert town. The movie features such not-shabby co-stars as Peter Falk (TV’s Columbo), Rip Torn (TV’s The Larry Sanders Show), Diane Ladd (Wild at Heart) and Bruce Dern (TV’s Big Love).
I spoke to the very lively and very busy Leachman, a five-time Emmy Award-winning actress (and don’t forget, she’s an Oscar winner, as well!), on the phone as she was in a car heading over to the Laguna Playhouse, where she was getting ready to take the stage for a performance of her one-woman show entitled, not surprisingly, Cloris: A One Woman Show. I’m assuming that can be pretty grueling work for an actor, particularly when you’re also appearing in a new weekly television, as Ms. Leachman is in the new Fox sitcom Raising Hope.
Disc Dish: Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me, Ms. Leachman!
Cloris Leachman: It’s my pleasure, dear.
DD: So tell me, how did American Cowslip, an offbeat dark comedy, initially make its way to you?
CL: Everyone always asks me that about all my projects! It came to me the same way all projects do — my agent called me with a script, I read it, we talked about it and its advantages and disadvantages, and then we made a decision.
DD: I assumed that Mark David might have had an in with you or one of the other well-known members of the cast.
CL: Actually, I think Diane Ladd might have known the co-writer and star Ronnie Gene Blevins. She read the script early on and was excited about it. It was a very interesting script about a drug addict. I think Ronnie was an addict at one time, but I don’t know how much of it is personal. I enjoyed the movie. It was made with so much care and detail.
DD: Many of your scenes in the film were with Diane Ladd.
CL: Yes, and that was a delight. And she gave me the most beautiful candle when we were finished.
DD: How do you enjoy working on independent films like American Cowslip? Are the working conditions and accommodations a little different from other Hollywood work?
CL: I’m always so beautifully taken care of on all the projects I’m in that I can’t complain. I’m actually amazed at how well I’m treated. Amazed and grateful!
DD: The last several years have seen you straddling the worlds of both film and television —
CL: –you don’t really straddle them. You go to each place separately.
DD: Okay. In which of the two worlds do you prefer to live and act?
The five-time Emmy winner on stage in Cloris: A One-Woman Show.
CL: I’ll answer that question with a story my mother-in-law once told me a about something that happened during the Depression. There’s a knock on her back door and she opens the door and there’s a women standing there. The woman asked my mother if she could please spare something to eat. My mother-in-law told her to come in and she offered her soup or eggs or meatloaf or macaroni and cheese. ‘What would you prefer?’ my mother-in-law asked. And the woman said, ‘I’m very fond of anything.’
DD: Gotcha. Before I forget, I wanted to tell you that I loved your appearance on the Bob Saget Roast a couple of years ago.
CL: That was a lot of fun! The funniest moment was when I told the audience that when Mary Tyler Moore has an orgasm, she throws her hat in the air. Everyone loved that! I saw Mary at the Emmy Awards a few weeks after that, and she had heard about what I said and was very amused.
DD: Speaking of Mary Tyler Moore, I read online about some sort of ongoing, friendly feud between you and fellow Mary Tyler Moore Show alum Betty White. What’s the story there?
CL: The story is that we’re both in our 80s! That’s it, and that’s big news. The truth is that Betty White and I aren’t even friends! We’ve worked together four times in 40 years. We’re both in the movie You Again, which is opening tomorrow.
DD: Maybe the two of you should get together and do a TV show or movie, so you can quell the rumors of a feud.
CL: Possibly. Anything can come your way sooner or later.
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